Shearer



Aug. 31, 1948. R. V. l-uRscH 2,448,219

SHEARER Filed Nov. 22, 1944 y A2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. j/Ycl-/A PJJ l( HIPSCH Mar-ft2 F7777 llllllll llllllllll ,v

Aug. 31, 194s.

R. y. HlRscH SHEARER 2 Sheets-sheet 2 Filed Nov. 22, 1944 -l INVENTOR. RICHARD l//zPScH Patented Aug. 31, 1948 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 9 Claims.

This invention concerns shearing and cutting devices and any other kind of device in which the principles and novelty of this disclosure are likely to be useful. The preferred form of the invention, however, is for an electrically operable razor and the like.

The razor herein disclosed operates on the hidn den shearing principle wherein the shearing edges are perpendicular to the surface to be shorn or at a slight angle thereto. The shearing elements consist of a plurality of compact blades having their gliding or skin contact edges in a single plane, the skin contact edges of the blades being flat and void of all sharp edges or points, thus avoiding any risk of cutting the face or other surface over which the blades may be employed. All the blades are superimposed in side by side relationship and such a unit of blades may be described as a laminated cutting unit which presents to the surface of the skin a smooth noncutting edge. Every blade of the razor is perpendicular to the center line of the driving shaft or driving lever. Every blade acts as a cutter and does not havek any combing action which might be imagined from the general battlement construction of the razor blades. Although flat blades are preferred, it is also intended to include curved blades nested together as it is evident that the invention would successfully work with variously shaped blades that are not flat. When the device of this invention is properly employed and run along the surface of the skin, some hairs are pressed or bent over toward the skin when they are cut, but most of the hairs will be cut while normal to the skin in that these hairs would pass through the cutout portions of the blades; some hairs would be pushed to the right or left of the approaching blade front and thus enter the cutout portions at a slight angle.

The cutting portions of the blades are serrated with castellations to assure a smooth even facial contact surface, even though the blades are thin, in that their combined laminated arrangements with their edges on a common plane prevents any one or more blades from digging into the surface of the skin; this is so because there are no sharp or ragged edges to contact the skin of a person. Nevertheless, every hair of the skin is positively and closely sheared as the razor of this invention is glided over the surface of the skin because of the plurality of cutting edges presented which are so positioned that they easily shear all the hairs while gliding smoothly and gently over the skin.

Certain of the blades of the razor are xed and others are reciprocabla but .al1 are, nevertheless,

relatively reciprocable in that the blades sandwiched between the Xed ones are rapidly vi brated. The movable blades are said to be rapidly vibrated, but they are in fact only moder ately Vibrated in comparison with otherrkinds and types of automatic razors, and this is due to the fact that applicants blades are numerous and each blade provides a very large number of cutting edges.

One of the principal objects of this invention is to present a new and novel rapid shaver or shearer that is sturdy and simply built, has few parts, is self-contained in compact form, and is easy to make and economical to manufacture.

Another object is to present a slick gliding razor in which the cutting edges are but slightly in contact with the surface over which the razor glides, but cannot cut the skin, nevertheless, under light pressure, all hairs and the like in the path of the razor Will cut close to the surface.

Another object is to provide a razor with a plurality lof laminations of independent blades having a plurality of shearing battlements, the cute ting edges of which do lightly contact the skin, but which, nevertheless, will not cut the skin at normal pressures while the blades closely and neatly cut all hairs in the razors path.

Other objects, advantages and features of my invention will appear from the accompanying drawings, the subjoined detailed description, the preamble of these specifications and the appended claims.

Applicant is about to illustrateand describe one of the forms of his invention in order to teach one how to make and use the same, but it is to be understood that the drawings and description thereof are not to limit the invention in any sense whatsoever, except as positively limited by the appended claims.

In the drawings:

Fig. l is an enlarged top plan view of a razor with parts thereof being broken away,

Fig. 2 is a front elevational view of the razor shown in Fig. 1 with parts broken awaT Fig. 3 is a side elevational View of the entire razor device,

Fig. 4 is a side elevational view similar to the top portion of Fig. 3, but showing a slight modi.- fication thereof, and

Figs. 5, 6 and 7 are end elevational views of laminated blade portions of slightly modified forms of the invention.

The reference character I indicates the head portion of an electric rapid shaver or razor, and the numeral 2 indicates the body part which is designed to be readily gripped by or held in a persons hand. The body portion 2 is a housing for an electric motor for operating the movable blades of the head, the motor being supplied With suitable electric current Via of the two wire cord 3, and through the button type current control switch 4. A rotary shaft 5 extends from the armature of the motor and connects with a short shaft 6 whichy is :slightly eccentric toA shaft 5 through the medium of the short arm 1. Since it is desired to avoid all unnecessary friction and scraping action, the amount of the offset of the shafts 5 and 'I need only be about 0.006 inch in that the blades that are shifted by the shafts need only shift about 0.012 inch for .the reason thati the coarsest hair is no more than. about.0.003 inch thick.

The top portion of the casing or housing 2, as shown, may be integral with the head I of the razor, and have the Iremovable .bottoml cap-01' closuremeans 8 for gaining yaccess to the motor chamber 9. Obviously, the ymotor Ywould be a fractional horsepower one and .be Aoperated by the-usual lighting or house alternating current of 60 cycle-or 50 cycle.

Five flat cutting )blades are shown. numbered from I to I4 inclusive. Blades I0, I2 and I4 are iiXed `ones and do not move relatively `te the housing, but do move relatively withrespect to the movable blades IIuand I3. Therefore, the xed blades have enlarged |central holes I5 so as to make plenty ofclearance .forwthe shaft 5, but the movable blade-s have holes I6 `which snugly receive .the shaft and are vbratedmor reciprocated therewith. shaft :to revolve without affecting the straight line action -of the movable blades, cutouts I6 are provided, note Fig. 1. Themovable blades have cutouts Il at `the ends thereof tomiake plenty of clearance for the posts I8 and i9` whichlposts are shown as inte-gral with the housing 2. lThe fixed blades, however, have holes 20 whichvsnugly receive the posts. All the Iblades are` superimposed one on the other, and heldsc by the curved 'plate-spring 2l which is held in position by the screws 22 and 23, these screws being `threadedly engaged with the threaded bores 24 =of the posts.

As said before, 4the cutting portions of the blades are serrated with. casitellation -or castellated so as to distinguish their general coniiguratio-n rfrom angled shapes, as saw teeth, which produce sharp points, and which it is desired to avoid in this disclosureY so as not to risk injuring the skin of a person. All the bladesare castellated byproviding their edges 25 and 26 with aY-plurality of evenlyspaced apart cutouts 21, as shown, the edges 28 and 29 of each blade at the cutout portion thereof are ground sharp so as to Ipresent true right-angled keen edges 28l and 29.

.The razor shown in Fig. 4 is substantially the same as the'one `just explained except that a large number of flat thinner blades are employed which arenumbered 3i! .to-35 inclusive. One of the razor edges -is not shown squared but biased at a slight angle to present a slightlybevelled ground surface 3l so that ythe razor can be held against the skiny at ari-angle and also forallowing the laminated shaver to attackthe hairs in a slightly different manner than attacked by the ground and squared edge 38, 'notexFigz 3. The hairy skin of a `person .is indicated at 39 yin Figs.- 3 and 4, and is .believed to be a fai-r representation as ft'o how the .hairs extend Ifrom the skin.

Figs. 5, 6 and 7 show only the laminated blade Tcmallow the eccentric ends in end elevation, as for inst-ance, either the right or Ileft extreme portion of the blades of Fig. 4, but these modied forms present different arrangements of contact edges for the skin; that is, in llig- 5, -the blades are so arranged that the combncdedges of blades form a wide open V- shaped cross-sectional contour. rIhis arrangement presents the two angled surfaces 4I) and 4I and `form an elongated "ridge loreciigefliIZ which entends the `full length of the blade unit. The blades o-f this lmodification have been given the prima numbers ci the reference characters designating the similar blades of Fig. 4 so as -to more clearly indicate ith-at the blade arrangement and the entire razor is the same except. for the slight changes noted.

"Fig ('shows the blade unit hav-ing formed at its, gliding surface a curved or conve-Xed surface d3, and the Fig. 7 shows a concaved surface 44. The various gliding surfaces shown in Figs.r4, 5, and 'l all 4have their peculiar function-s in receiving the hairs lto becut, the closenessof the cutting action, and the manner of exerting pressure upon the immediate suraceof the skin as the razor glides along. 'It is now obvious-that the gliding edges 3l and 38. need not necessarily be flat surfaces in order to satisfactorily and neatly shave the beard from a m-ans face or the hairs lfrom any surface such as the skin oa-persons arrn, leg, neck, etc. Obviously, in View of this disclosure, theblades of` the razor neednot be flat ones .as curved ones would work well and may possi-bly be lpreferred `flor some specificpurposes.

it is, of course, understood that various changes' and modifications may be ymade in the detail-s of form, style, design and construction of the vWhole for any part of the specifically described embodiment -o-f this invention Without departing from the spirit thereof, such changes |and -rncdications being restricted only bythe limitati-ons clearly expressed in the following claims.

Having thus described my invention, what is claimed as new and .desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. In a shearing kdevice `having ahead and handle-like means to support it, a blade unit n the head having a plurality of laminations'with one edge of each lamination adapted to be `glided along a surface 'to be sheared, cutting edges extending from the said one edge inwardly of each lamination to present a large number of cutting edges along the length of the unit, alternate laminations having a fixed relation with the head and the other laminations having means for their reciprocation, said means to support lthe head having a motor with an eccentric pin extending from a shaft thereof which passes through all the blades, the reciprocable blades each having a perforation with perimetrical-walls that engage the pin only on two opposed points thereof, Iand the Xed blades each having a perforation thatis provided with walls that arewell spaced .from the pin.

2. .In a razor ydevicehaving .a body portion, blade unit, and. means for holding the unitonto the body portion, an eccentric pinprojecting from the end of a Ymotor shaft extendingfrom the body portion, and through the blade unit, the lunit comprising va plurality of side-by-side superimposed fblades; having holes therein toy accommodate the pin, certain of the blades Ibeingzrnovable relative to the ,votherzbladespsaid ycertain blades having portions of their holes snugly engaging the said pin to follow the movement of said pin.

3. In a razor device having a body adapted to be held in a persons hand, a blade unit, and means for holding the blade unit to the body, the unit comprising a lamination of blades superimposed in side-by-side relationship and presenting a common gliding surface, each of the blades having one of its edges castellated and the edges of the castellations being sharp and extending to the gliding surface, and means extending from the body and attached to alternate blades for rapidly reciprocating them and presenting a plurality of cutting edges at the gliding surface of the device, said means extending from the body comprising an eccentric pin that revolves freely through an opening in the xed blades, a hole through the end portions of Ithe blades, said means for holding the blade unit to the body including a pair of spaced apart studs which pass through said last mentioned holes and which snugly engage and hold the xed blades.

4. The device recited in claim 3 wherein the gliding surface is a flat surface and in a plane at right angles to the axis of the said means extending from the body.

5. The device recited in claim 3 wherein the gliding surface is a ilat surface and in a plane at an acute angle to the axis of the said means extending from the body.

6. The device recited in claim 3 wherein the gliding surface has a plurality of small surfaces forming a plurality of planes with respect to the axis of the said means extending from the body.

7. In a shearing device, a body, a plurality of superimposed blades presenting a common gliding surface for contact with the surface to be sheared, alternate blades having fixed relation with a portion of Ithe device and the other blades having means for rapidly reciprocating them, a plurality of cutting edges on each blade at an angle with respect to the gliding surface, and a resilient plate at one side of the blades having means for securing lthe blades in operative position with respect to the body.

8. In a shearing device having a head and handle-like means to support the head, a blade unit in the head having a plurality of xed laminations and other laminations connected to a motor means in the handle-like means for reciprocating them snugly against the xed ones, one edge of all the laminations having a common plane, and cutting edges extending from the common plane inwardly to present a large number of cutting edges along the length of the unit, an eccentric pin extending from a shaft of the motor which passes through all the blades, said other laminations being movable ones and having alined Walls about an opening therethrough which engage Ithe pin only along opposed sides thereof, and the fixed blades having alined walls about an opening which Walls are permanently spaced from all surfaces of the pin.

9. In a razor device having a handle-shaped body, a blade unit, and means for holding the unit to the body, the unit comprising a lamination of blades superimposed in side-by-side relationship and presenting a common gliding surface, said body housing an electric motor having a shaft with an eccentric pin extending therefrom, a central opening through all the blades, alternate blades being xed blades and having the Walls of their openings in perfect alinement and spaced from the pin in all its positions, the other blades having the Walls of its openings in alinement but with two of its opposed Walls in contact with opposed points of the pin and its other walls spaced from the pin.

' RICHARD V. HIRSCI-I.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,107,207 Muros Feb. 1, 1938 2,163,406 Nyhagen June 20, 1939 2,253,195 Oster Aug. 19, 1941 2,300,140 Te Pas et al Oct. 27, 1942 

